Rockets play a game for the (stone) ages.

I want you to dim the lights and turn up the volume on your computer. I’ve got something that’ll make you forget your troubles. And I know you’ve got troubles today, my friend. You’ve got that lousy baseball team. You’re so lathered up by that sorry, no-account bunch you could spit nails. Just when you thought nothing could be worse, your basketball team plays a game that ought to be the measuring stick for terrible.

I’ve got something that’ll help. I’ve got the thing that will make you sit back, smile and hum What a Wonderful World. If this video doesn’t soothe your nerves, you may need to take drastic action. I’d suggest a huge bowl of gumbo followed by a slab of chocolate cake. However, I think if you’ll just sit down, watch a time or two, you’ll be as good as new. Your friends and neighbors will be calling you Mr. Optimist.

(If the cat video doesn’t do it for you, here’s a video that’ll make any day better. This one comes with a warning: it’ll make you cry like a baby. I’ve watched it about two hundred times and it still makes me choke up.)

Before Game 3, we wondered if the Rockets could win a game if they continued to shoot 37.5 percent from the field. We didn’t find out Thursday in Salt Lake. We did learn that the Rockets can’t win when shooting 32.8 percent from the field.

That 81-67 loss to Utah was incredible in a lot of ways. Utah plays terrific, tough, in-your-face defense. They challenge every possession and most passes. If you’re going to beat the Jazz, you have to be prepared to match muscle and elbows with muscle and elbows. The Rockets did that in winning Games 1 and 2. They didn’t in Game 3 and scored the fewest points in franchise history.

Their bench was outscored 33-0. They scored 10 points in the third quarter. They got points from just four players. Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming scored 50 of their 67 points. McGrady disappeared in the second half, scoring just eight of his 24 points (three in the third and five in the fourth). Did he get tired? “They did a better job on the pick-and-rolls,” McGrady said. “They blitzed me to get the ball out of my hands. On my post-ups, they sent an extra guy.”

Luther Head and Juwan Howard were a combined 0 for 10. The Rockets turned the ball over 19 times. The Rockets went 10 minutes without a field goal at one point in the second half. This time, when JVG wore his unhappy face, he was just being realistic.

”I think that in the fourth quarter they were the mentally stronger team,” JVG said. “They were up and into us good. That’s what they do. They responded.” He could have added that they weren’t too bad in the first, second and third quarters, either.

This is going to be a long, exhausting series. We’re all going to know how mentally and physically tough the Rockets are by the time it’s over. I’ll have more cat videos ready.

• • •

This will be an interesting day on the blog. Bill Parcells called the day after a game either the assigning of blame or the dispensing of credit. I haven’t looked at a single post this morning, but I’m guessing there’ll be calls for the firing of JVG, Phil Garner and Tim Purpura, the release of numerous players and at least one goofy trade proposal. I know you knuckleheads better than you know yourselves.

• • •

This being a full service blog, I will help with assigning blame: Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Juwan Howard and Shane Battier. They’re shooting 26.6 percent. Head is 1 of 12 from three-point land. For the playoffs, the Rockets are shooting 36.1 percent from the field. That’s the lowest among the 16 playoff teams. At 83 points per game, just one of the 16 teams is worse. Utah is averaging 82.

• • •

Someone wrote me yesterday all worked up because the Yankees were bringing 20-year-old Phil Hughes to the big leagues and the Astros were allowing Troy Patton (21) and Hunter Pence (24) to remain in the minors. Be careful what you wish for. Hughes allowed four runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings in a 6-0 loss to the Blue Jays.

First of all, I don’t even want to know how you came across that video. That being said, I am glad you did – I needed something to help me forget the woeful state my beloved teams have bestowed upon me. You could just tell that Nora has the desire to play, but the undertanding and loose-digit thing will haunt her to her death.

I’m not too worried about the Rockets but the ‘Stros need to make changes. It’s funny because just before you came out with your previous blog, I had mentioned to my cousin the same exact roster changes you proposed. Are we going to see Pence anytime soon? Don’t you think a package sending Everett, Ensberg, Lidge, Burke and Lane could bring us just ONE hard-throwing, nieve youngster we could throw into the ninth? Defense wins championships? Well not when you can’t score 2 runs consistently. I think replacing Ensberg at third with Lamb and Everett at short with Loretta would put a jolt into our offense. Pence taking Burke’s spot would be a sure improvement – come on, you don’t really think Burke will ever amount to anything, right? And don’t we have a second baseman in the minors who Burke would hold up anyways if he stayed?

Thanks for the cat. That was strangely soothing. I was really upset that I could not watch the Rockets here in Amarillo but after reading that only four Rockets scored points, I felt better about it. Lucky me though, I get to watch the Mavericks on two stations. Nowitzki makes me want to change the station every time he touches the ball. I think that he gives Sam Cassell a real run for his money. I would say that the next game in Utah is pretty much a must win for the Rockets. Normally saying that is a stretch for a team that is up 2-1 but this team seems to get really nervous when they have a series lead.

I don’t even want to talk about the Astros. But I will. It’s really hard to know when to say enough is enough with this team’s experiments. Such the Chris Burke experiment, the giving Ensberg another chance experiment, not trading Lidge, the platoon between Scott and Lane, and whether or not to play Loretta more. The only thing I feel is going right and is a nice change of pace over the last couple of years is their ability to score runs late in games. I just wish that would translate into wins. Oh and one more thing, Adam Everett is the best defensive shortstop that I have seen since Ozzie Smith. No matter what happens I say that Everett is untouchable. He saved run after run the other night in Pittsburgh. He almost had that last play that the Pirates on. I think that the Astros of right now will look much different than the Astros of one month from now.

Big Zambrano has more HRs and RBIs than Burke and he plays every 5 days. The Burke Experience needs to end now and lets bring up Pence. I am really confident he will get more than the 2 RBIs Burke has.

JVG has done a good job this year but he has always been a disaster as an offensive coach. It is a 2 man offense, has been a 2 man offense, and nothing hs been done to change it. When the opponent defends well, there are not adjustments …we have seen it time and time again. If it was football JVG would be my defensive coordinator..but somebody else needs to be running the offense.

The Rockets 2 man gang will be enough to overcome the Jazz…and then that’s it…and it will be the same sotry for a couple of more years. Like the Astros we are supposed to be content with a competitive team, rather then one that makes the moves and takes the chances to win championships.

What a bad day. I watched both games. I knew it was over for the Astros when Everett came to bat with two outs and the bases loaded in the 9th. And as for the Rockets, everyone lately at the Chronicle has been talking about how VG is such a great coach, but I have my doubts. There doesn’t seem to be any offensive plan. The Rockets only had 11 assists. They don’t seem to have any set plays other than giving it to McGrady so he can try to look like Kobe, shooting too many bad shots, or low post to Yao. As for Yao, he needs to develop a hook shot so he doesn’t have to turn to face the basket to shoot. He had 8 turnovers and a couple of his shots were blocked. The Rockets may get past the Jazz, but that’s it. They have no chance against the Mavs, Suns or Spurs.

I think Houston will win either way. If they dont get past the first round, they lose JVG which is a win in itself. Utah is not a bad team. No one was going to beat them on this night. If only 4 players score in a game that is bad. But again, i dont think any team could have beaten utah on this night. Especially with that annoying loud crowd. Houston is nothing compared to Utah in regards to its crowd. Its no wonder we’re so volatile at our home compared to utah in theirs.

The Rockets are in serious need of a tough, physical point guard. Alston played awful last night. Why didn’t Van Gundy pull him out of the game after he commited turnover after turnover or after he kept getting burned by Williams going to the basket with ease? You do get tired of seeing a closeup of Alston’s face showing dissapointment everytime Williams scores. Its like he’s waiting to get pulled from the game.

When Wandy came up to bat with the bases loaded and only 1 out, don’t you automatically tell him not to swing? He’s not going to do anything with the bat except risk hitting into a double play. That is exactly what happened.

As horribly as the Rockets played (fortunately I couldn’t see the game- I live out of town and don’t get NBA TV), let’s remember that the pressure is still on the Jazz. There have been numerous instances where a team up 2-0 has lost game 3 on the road, but come back to win game 4 and the series. The Rockets did this very thing in the 1994 West Finals against Utah. The Rockets deserve the criticism for last night’s debacle, but I’d still rather be in their position. Let’s save the doom and gloom for when they’ve lost homecourt advantage.

Seems to me a certain #2 seed that everyone looked at as invincible also lost last night, and they were favored.

What a shame on Rockets to have a game like that. While hoping that they can go far, I am now really worried after watching them beaten up by the Jazz last night.

I really have a problem with JVG. The Rockets is probably the only team in this league using 8-man rotation. I understand that Bonzi has his own problems. However, if the Kings could manage to use him efficiently, why not the Rockets? As the coach, JVG is partly accountable for being unable to integrate Bonzi into the Rockets. With Head having no playoff experience and Juwan Howard with aged legs, you could have imagined off-night for them for one night like last night or even for the whole series. You got to have plans prepared for situations like this. Because of the 8 or 9 man rotation strategy even in the regular season, all left with JVG is to keep Head and Juwan in the court. Now, I could see the Rockets in troubles.

It worries me the way Houston played, it is not because of game 3 lost. Look at the shooting statistic for the 3 playoff game so far. It is not good at all! This is what happen when you have guys have low shooting percent like Alston, Juan only makes 3 of 12,13 or 14…. They tried you hard to penetrate and dish it out for 3 points and keep missing.

Really bad! Can’t win with guy like that.

It looks like the Utah only needs to play good defend on Yao, T-mac and Battier and left Alston, juan, hayes have low percent shot all night and win the ball game.

Is it too late to add Bonzi to the active rotation? And maybe even give him some minutes? He’s probably sitting at honme laughing his booty off at the retarded Rockets who score 0 points off the bench. Van Gundy needs to get over his pride, and let’s wina series. Or two. Or three.

Big deal. The Rockets are still up 2-1 and only have to win 2 of the next 4, of which half will be at home. They weren’t going to sweep a team that had almost the exact same record.

Reminds me of years ago when the Astros got blown out at home so bad in the game after the All-Star break that they brought in a position player to pitch the 9th (this was before Canseco was injured that way, back when there was a little more sense of humor allowed.) Big blowout, but all it meant was a single addition to the loss column, as Houston bounced back with a big win streak and made the playoffs that year.

These numbers arent exact avgs for the playoffs… but this is what you can expect from the rockets… and please dont try to argue youd self in to thinkin that they can do better than this… we know what we have… we know what to expect… this is what the rockets are gonna do in the entire playoffs… there might be a night they may do better than that… and it seems like they might survive utah because the way these two teams play. because we know one thing is rockets can adjust because the talent isnt there for adjustment…. you have a bench with howard comin off… howard?!!!!!! i’m sorry ppl can dog on rafer; luther head; because they are shooters… well atleast luther is… and i know he is young and all with all the pressure but he is shooter he will knock it down some day… rafer is a PG; rockets can survive that mode with him; but i hate to dog one guy; but whenevr jowan comes off the bench, i can frustrated… because when ever he gets the ball in the post and does his goofy inside moves thinkin he is the next jabbar just gives me a feelings of cramps… this is what rockets need to do… there is no chance of championship… sorry it hurts alot but ist the truth… i wish he can win it all but aint gonna happen… there are teams coaches and players who are so much better then the rockets… i just want rockets to get out of the first round… becuz i dont want ppl like chuckles barkles to be hard to mcgrady… he is a player who may not deserve a title yet but a play off series… he does… he may need to earn it… and honestly if you wants to get out of the first round he may have to do it all by him self with little help of yao… how is this mcgrady scores 70 point , yao scores 30… and we get nothin from any one else… i would take that any day… for a win… because that seems more duable then the other rockets to score… peace… mavs see you in the next round… and lets hope they break down because our wheels have fallen off already…

the last time the rockets won a ring was during olajuwan era . the big difference? he was surrounded by teammates who can feed him but shoot the pressure pack threes robert horry. sam cassel. kenny smith even clyde drexler so it is much easier for hakeem to operate inside. but sad to say with yao no one can shoot even tmac who takes majority of the shots is not shooting at a high percentage. amazingly even with this scenario yao still scored 26 .i saw the game earlier hes so dominant right now i noticed when hes under the ring they automatically hack a shaq him .16 free throw attempts today. if yaos teammate continue to shoot at a terible percentage . yao should take most of the shots . with yao at least even if he misses chances are he will be fouled.

Looks like the true rockets showed their ugly face. It’s ashame because the most of the positive fans never want to look at reality. This team is not put together to win when they dont get lucky with scoring outside of the big 2. All year plenty of people including myself realized we were lacking and not playing our subs during the year was a bad mistake. Most championship teams have 3 scorers not just 2.. On this team each night you hope someone shows up as our third scorer.. we have people on the bench that could be but have not been given the oppurtunity during the season to expose their talent. Can anyone say Nachbar.. he sat the bench somewhat like Spanoulis,Novack and Snyder.. We never knew what to make of him and now he is a bonafide contributer with New Jersey. Its ashame but this is the same thing that will happen to our young players that are on the roster now. WE HAVE BEEN EXPOSED!!!

I’ve been astonished all year long when Worrell admires Juwan Howard’s touch shooting and offensive skill…the bottom line is he is slow, he can’t defend, he can’t rebound, and his shot is average at best…and by shot i mean wide open jumper from the baseline that kwame brown can even make…but if you think he can do the small things, well he can’t, because he can’t make a layup and he sure as hell can’t tract down a loose ball without fouling

Its sad when I leave a bar to head to another and in about a 15 minute span the Rockets had scored no more than 4 points. I guess they didn’t want me to miss any “spectacular” plays while I was in transit.

All this does is prove the notion of CD as a great GM to be pure folly.

Yao Ming- CD had the first pick in the draft because he had done such a lousy job previously. The Rally Monkey could have made that pick.

Shane Battier- A team guy that does the little things. It sounds great, but in the playoffs you need more from a top-ten pick than the occasional floor burn. You need points with that defense.

Rashard Lewis- CD had three first round picks that year and didn’t take a flier on Lewis with any of them. Purely idiotic and short sighted.

I could go on and on: Moochie Norris, Matt Maloney, Kelvin Cato, Stromile Swift, but that would be piling on.

Call him a good coach, a nice guy, whatever. He has been a sorry GM.

A great GM puts guys together that others weren’t sure about. Check out the Mavs. In ’98 it was Dirk Who? Josh Howard- late first rounder (What Rashard would have been to the Rockets). Diop was a joke in Cleveland. Jason Terry was languishing in Atlanta. Stackhouse has been passed around like government cheese.

Check out Joe Dumars: Rasheed was a malcontent. Billups was floundering. Rip Hamilton was run out of Washington by that great talent man- MJ. No one was lining up to draft Prince out of Kentucky. You should be talking about JD instead of CD, even if he had a hiccup drafting Darko.

The Rockets will soon be an afterthought- just like CD.

Yes! I knew it! One loss in the playoffs and it’s time to find someone to blame. You win the big prize. As for your facts, well, you’ve got some wrong. CD had nothing to do with the Rashard Lewis pick. The Shane Battier trade was a good one.–Richard

Well, what a road trip. Bad weather, delays, a make-up game, multple cities, a 16 inning loss with an 11:35 start the next day, swept again by PITTSBURGH!…whew! Now, we have to face the first place Brewers for 3 games, after they’ve had a day off. It seems as though we are almost to the point where the team has to stop the messing around with experiementation and try to salvage some position in the standings. I am an everyday fan, and have been a Stros fan all my life. I root for them win or lose. But, we have to look at what we have available to put the best team on the field right now. Short of any deals, I think the following give us the best chance to win:

I cannot figure out why the Astros think they’re good enough to keep an All-Star starter on the bench. Loretta’s good enough to start for a team of the best, most elite American Leaguers, but not on our squad?!?

Luke Scott was our 2nd most productive offensive player after the All-Star break last season, and he hasn’t earned an everyday spot? Mike Lamb shouldn’t get to start? Not ever?!?

That said, I still think the Stros will be in good shape eventually. Get Jennings back, call up Patton and Pence, bench Bidge after 3000, actually play the players who actually produce…

Folks, yes last nights game was ugly with a capital U, but these guys will respond in Game 4. That was a game the Jazz absolutley had to win and they played like it, fairly predictable outcome. As for only 4 players scoring, that was surprising and I know the Rockets were emabarrased by it. If anything it will only motivate Head and Howard….. We hope….. My bold prediction Rockets in 5.

Funny how everyone in the media loved JVG and the majority of fans hate him. JVG is a good sound bite and quote machine, so of course the media loves him. I give JVG credit, the Rockets immediately started playing better defense when JVG was hired. But offensively our team is horrible and has been during the JVG era. The offense is give it to Yao or T-Mac and get ready to get the rebound or run back on defense. You need to score sometimes, a stellar defense only takes you so far. Lastly, JVG refuses to develop players. He will allow players to sit at the end of the bench and not get any better in favor of leaning on superstars. The only time young player get to play on this team is when the injury bug comes. On this team we should trade all of our draft picks because no one we pick will get playing time under this coach.

The media can keep defending JVG, but these are the same people who will rip him up when/if he gets fired. It happened with Capers and Rudy T.

You won’t find me ripping JVG. I ripped Capers before and after the fact. Casserly? Well, let’s just say I flip-flopped a bit on that one. In other words, he fooled me, which is especially inexcusable since we had a long history together.–Richard

What a pathetic display of basketball last night. Luther Head looks like he is scared to death making his first road playoff game debut. He missed countless layups and jacked up too many, forced 3 pointers.

Also, someone tell Juwan Howard that you are paid to hit those wide open 15-18 foot jump shots. Did you see this guy? He must have missed 8+ point blank wide open looks. You have got to knock those down knowing that Yao and T-Mac are going to get doubled consistently.

At this time, Game 4 is everything in my opinion. If they win game 4, then I think the Rockets have a good chance of winning the series. If they lose it, and we are headed back to Houston tied at 2-2, then the pressure shifts back to us and I think our guys might fold again.

After all, this team has no killer instinct and it would be a huge dissapointment not to get out of the first round again.

Let’s hope that this was an abberation and that they can play better and get the “W” in game 4.

How many games in a row do we have to lose for either Purpura/Garner (hopefully both) to get FIRED? Hate to say this but lets lose some games and get people who really know how to run a baseball team. Garner flat out stinks and Purpura is worse.

Let’s see…The Texans offense can’t score, the Astros can’t score, and now the Rockets show they have caught the dreaded “Pointus Interruptus” virus as well. HMMMM. Wonder if the Chron. sports department is where this originates, mutates, and spreads through the beat writers who then infect the teams. Think about it. It makes as much sense as this series of generally lousy scoring performances we have had to endure from the home boys. Also consider that the Rockets bench scored as many points as me and my boozing buddies at the bar watching their sorry butts. Awful.

Granted, Pence’s numbers are a small sample. He could go either way when brought up to the majors. It wouldn’t make any sense if you had an outfield in the majors that’s currently lighting it up like Christmas. The thing is that you don’t. You have a second baseman playing centerfield who has absolutely no feel for playing centerfield, and who’s batting near the Mendoza line.

You have a perfectly good center field prospect currently crushing AAA pitching.

That seems like a clearcut solution to me. Ofcourse, you can agree with Drayton, just keep selling out games, and finish 11 games behind Milwaukee, and enjoy your October off. *shrug*

I’m guessing it’s not a great day in Houston today, huh? That was a truly horrible game by the Rockets. They’re still up a game though. No need to panic yet.

As for the Astros, hmm, maybe a little panic is in order. Still, it’s not as if you’re as bad off as the Yankees. Who, btw, brought up THEIR prize prospect yesterday, and lost, and the kid might go back to AAA.

So even though it’s apples to oranges (pitchers to position players), perhaps bringing up a prospect isn’t the greatest thing ever.

Take heart, at least the Cubs are worse!

Btw, there’s a lot of good arguments on baseball going on around here, I enjoy reading them and arguing on them. Good job.

Look, this T-Mac on the Houston rockets is special weapon, have faith in him, ever since he dropped 13 points in 35 seconds to overcome San Antonio I became a real fan to him. T-Mac have the power, talent, will, and skills to overcome every defense the Jazz throws at him. Tomorrow, T-Mac will shine…

What bothers me about the game was the Rockets looked totally listless – no energy, no sense of urgency, not even a rally spurt. Yao mentioned in his interview that they had no energy – well, it was obvious during a stretch in the 3rd quarter when the quarter has only been a couple of minutes played and Yao is already bent over grasping his knees while McGrady is having to take a step to gather himself for another 3 point brick.

This is exactly how they looked in Game 7 of the Dallas series – no desire, no energy. I’m sorry, but these guys are pros, and I contribute that to one thing – coaching. How can you not have energy in an important series, especially when you had two days off between games?

As for T-Mac, he likes to rally the team behind a 3 point shot. You can tell when they’re down that he tries to fire up the team and the crowd by hitting a 3, more often than not missing it. He really needs to stop jacking up 3′s and start penetrating more – he can easily get by anybody guarding him and either draw fouls or kick it out to open men. Remember what he did to LeBron a couple of years ago – LeBron was the new kid, but T-Mac was going to show him how it was done, and he drove and dunked all game long. That’s the T-Mac they need right now, not the Steve Kerr-lookalike he’s trying to be right now.

Was CD in the front office during ’98? If he was, and he is as smart as you say he is, he should have been able to convince someone to take Lewis with one of those three picks.

You didn’t address much else, so am I to assume that you like the additions of Cato, Swift, Maloney, Norris, and getting rid of Nachbar.

You can love Battier all you want, but for a top ten pick, he needs to be able to score. You do know that it takes a legitimate third scorer to win in the play-offs, right? He can’t.

Why are the Suns able to get guys that can defend and score at the end of the first round, but CD got Houston stuck with a boring Dukie.

I feel sorry for my friends in Houston. Not one of their teams is fun to watch (offensively) and yet the press criticizes fans for being critical. Strange.

Sometimes the GM makes the call and sometimes he doesn’t. You’re flat wrong about Shane Battier. Don’t feel sorry for us down here. Our NFL team is better than yours. Our baseball team is better than yours. Your basketball team had better come ready to play when the Mavs and Rockets play next week. Bring a sandwich because it’s going to be a long series. If Dirk does one of us disappearing acts, your guys are in trouble. Our restaurants are better than yours, too.–Richard

Richard, I hope you were joking with that last comment otherwise you might as well be the most biased journalist in the history of journalism. I thought you guys were supposed to be objective, not use words like “we” or “our.” As for the statement that the Texans are better than the Cowboys, are you serious? Do you ever watch football? How have the Texans become better than the ‘Boys in the offseason? As I recall, we put a beatdown on that disgusting franchise from that disgusting city last fall. And for your statement about bringing a sandwich because the Mavs-Rockets series will be long, Rockets’ fans will be lucky to see it go beyond 5 games. The Warriors will give us a better run for their money than your Rockets will.

Nice comebacks to cowboy paul replies. The greatness we all know Tracy is capable of is the exact reason why many of his detractors ride him so hard. When you don’t have talent, your name is never mentioned and surely you won’t get blame for anything wrong with the team. However, to whom much is given, much is expected.

I believe our Rockets will win this series and they’ve done an excellent job of bouncing back from a horrible loss. Winning in a hostile environment is simple and after our team beat Kobe a few weeks ago in LA in overtime, I knew we’d go far in the playoffs. The million dollar question is, does each and every Rocket player believe this?